Movies
‘Black Mold’ Trailer – Preview the Horror Movie That Won Best Indie Feature at Panic Fest
Ahead of its International Premiere at UK’s FrightFest, Raven Banner has released the trailer to John Pata’s Black Mold, billed as a “hallucinogenic urban exploring horror movie.”
The film won Best Indie Feature at this year’s Panic Fest in the US and star Agnes Albright was also named Best Actress. Preview Black Mold with the official trailer below.
In the film, “Photographer Brooke (Agnes Albright, True Detective) and her pal Tanner (Andrew Bailes) sneak into abandoned, off-limits buildings for the sake of their art and also the adrenaline rush. But when the daredevil pair break into their holy grail – Franklin Hill, a large facility with a history – they encounter a dangerously paranoid squatter (Jeremy Holm, Brooklyn 45) who holds them captive.
“The longer their attacker keeps them there, the more it becomes clear there’s something else profoundly wrong with the place as dangers surface at the intersection of artistic pursuits and internal sabotage.”
This one comes from the producers of Brooklyn 45 and The Stylist.
Black Mold is a Head Trauma Production, in association with The Line Film Co. and Shatterglass Films. It was produced by Sarah Sharp, Jen Shelby, Robert Patrick Stern, and Iman Sharabash, with Jill Gevargizian, Tony Wash, and Kevin McGrail on-board as Co-Producers.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her mini-review out of Panic Fest, “In his feature debut, writer/director John Pata introduces the pitfalls of urban exploration. Pata uses psychological horror to exploit the protagonists’ worst fears. For Tanner, that leads to inspired jump-scare moments. For Brooke, it amounts to a slow-burn excavation of deep-seated childhood trauma.”
“Black Mold struggles to tie up its loose threads in a cohesive way, but Albright’s engaging performance retains rooting interest even when her arc can feel stretched thin,” Meagan’s review continues. “While its resolution may not wholly satisfy, the strong direction and execution ensure Black Mold provides compelling visual interest in this single-location thriller.”
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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